1. Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to circuit interrupters and, more particularly, to a circuit interrupter assembly having a circuit interrupter and an interlock within a cabinet that can be any of a wide variety of depths.
2. Related Art
Circuit interrupters are well known in the relevant art and are employed to protect portions of circuits from certain predefined overcurrent conditions, under-voltage conditions, and other predetermined conditions. Such circuit interrupters are movable between an ON condition and OFF condition and potentially also a TRIPPED condition in a known fashion.
In certain applications, a circuit interrupter may be enclosed within a metal cabinet or other enclosure in order to protect it from environmental concerns, concerns of unauthorized individuals tampering with the circuit interrupter, and other concerns. One known type of enclosure includes a handle at the exterior of the cabinet that is mechanically connected with a mechanism of the circuit interrupter within the cabinet that is movable to switch the circuit interrupter between, for example, its ON and OFF conditions. In one such exemplary configuration, a connection element in the form of a metal rod having a rectangular cross section is mounted to the circuit interrupter mechanism within the cabinet and extends toward the door in its closed position. When the door is open, the handle is disconnected from the connection element, but when the door is in its closed position, the handle is mechanically engaged with the connection element, which enables the handle on the outside of the cabinet to be rotated (by way of example) to cause the circuit interrupter to be switched between its ON and OFF conditions (again, by way of example).
While such circuit interrupter assemblies have been generally effective for their intended purposes, they have not been without limitation. For example, the cabinets in which the circuit interrupters are situated can be of any of a wide variety of depths. While the aforementioned connection element can be cut to any desired length to cause it to operatively extend between (within the interior of the cabinet) the circuit interrupter mechanism and the handle when the door is in the closed position, such an apparatus has heretofore been incapable of additionally providing an interlock feature whereby the state of the circuit interrupter cannot be changed unless the door is in its closed position. That is, known circuit interrupter assemblies have provided a connection element within the interior of the cabinet which enables the circuit interrupter to be switched between ON and OFF conditions when the door is closed, but when the door is opened, an individual can unrestrictedly manually switch the circuit interrupter between ON and OFF conditions. Such unrestricted switching of a circuit interrupter between ON and OFF conditions is undesirable for a variety of reasons.
While it has been known to provide an interlock for a circuit interrupter, no such interlock has been made operable on a circuit interrupter assembly that can be of any of a variety of depths because, in such an environment, the door can be any of a variety of distances from the interlock. While the aforementioned connection element can be cut to any desired length to enable its operation, no such feature has been provided to enable an interlock on a circuit interrupter to be operable in a similar fashion in cabinets of varying depths. It thus would be desired to enable a circuit interrupter assembly such as mentioned above to additionally have an interlock feature that can resist or limit movement of the circuit interrupter between the ON and OFF conditions when the cabinet door is opened.